


A Broken Clock

by Iamanidot



Series: Ashes of a Broken Clock (Time Travel Tommy AU) [2]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Exile Arc gets alluded to, Fluff, Gen, Good Friend Toby Smith | Tubbo, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Time Travel Fix-It, Time Travel Tommy AU, TommyInnit gets a hug, TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Tommyinnit needs a hug, its mentioned in the summary but not in the actual fic, or at least what gets him exiled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:35:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29527182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamanidot/pseuds/Iamanidot
Summary: Time travel is great, its nice! Tommy loved this new timeline, Wilbur was proud of him, L'Manburg was fine, and sure Dream was still a bitch, but he was a bitch with just as much lives as he did now, so that was nice.He didn't lose a single disc this time around! He was finally doing better, finally doing his part, maybe- maybe this time, he won't be relegated to be a broken clock anymore, useless and motionless, powerless to do anything but sit still and watch.Maybe- maybe this time, he can save L'Manburg.Maybe this time, he won't disappoint anyone ever again.Maybe this time, he can finally stop caring about some stupid discs, maybe this time, he and Tubbo can just be kids again.(Takes place a week before the Railway War, timeline wise.) (One shot)
Relationships: IF YOU SHIP THESE TWO I WILL STEAL YOUR KNEECAPS AND FEED IT TO MY KIDS, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: Ashes of a Broken Clock (Time Travel Tommy AU) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165652
Comments: 9
Kudos: 136





	A Broken Clock

**Author's Note:**

> Recommended to read the previous work/s to this series, but can be read as a stand alone

Heat and light engulfed his senses as the morning sun rose to greet his face, the wooden shack he was building illuminated by sunlight as Tommy gently smiled. He was home. Niki and Jack had joined the server a couple weeks ago, and things were going well.

~~Too well.~~

Footsteps creaked against the wooden floorboards as he turned to greet his best friend smiling at him with a proud expression, excitement dancing across the boy's face as he talked excitedly,

"Tommy- Tommy, I found something- Tommy come on- come on we're almost done, I've finished the roof and the walls are almost fully designed and then we can start on the rails-"

"Jesus Tubbo, you're so clingy stop being so hyperactive- okay, okay _fine_ we'll finish the roof and the walls big man _okay okay you can stop pulling my arm now-"_

Tommy grinned at this, he had missed Tubbo. Sure, the future definitely held some good moments for them, and they were definitely better friends because of everything, but he also had always missed these days. He missed when they were happy, he missed when they were given the chance to be kids, he missed when they weren't the hero and the president. He misses Tommyinnit and Tubbo Underscore.

Their day continued, as the two friends laughed and smiled and built the summer home, as Tommy found a wandering cow and as their grins never faltered, as the sun grew higher and as the afternoon rays shone on them, sweat matting their clothes from how long they've spent building and gathering materials ~~and having fun~~ under the sun. Tommy smiled at Tubbo, and his best friend followed suit. He never wanted this to end, he wishes it could stay like this forever.

"Hey Tubbo,"

"Yeah, Tommy?"

"Wanna take a break? You've done a lot today, we've finished the walls and the roof so let's take a few minutes rest and then we demolish this house-"

_"Tommy no-"_

"Sorry, sorry- poor choice of words, but you wanna rest, big man? We could go for some sparring, if you want? I could craft up some wooden swords and then we can spar, like, fuckin- Dream and Technoblade style, let's have a duel.

"Can I be the Technoblade? Please-"

_"I am not going to play the stupid son of bit-"_

Another ten minutes pass, and a crafting table with two wooden swords placed on top of it stood in front of Tommy as he wiped beads of sweat from his temple. Crafting had never really been one of his strong suits, he sucked at Bingo, from the many times he had played the game in MCC, utterly _hated_ it. Having grown up in Hypixel, he had grown accustomed to having his weapons already crafted and only needing to be bought with the right amount of minerals. Of course, this had put a hamper on his crafting abilities, and Technoblade had a similar problem when he had just started branching out of the gladiator islands, eventually rectified as the hybrid grew more and gained more skill and experience in crafting. 

The two grabbed their swords and left the house, venturing into the forest to find a clearing and minimize the interruptions to their little duel as much as they could, the trees of birch and oak surrounding them as they trudged deeper into the woods, small beams of light dancing across small patches of grass as tiny crevices where the leaves didn't overlap were taken advantage of, and light trailed itself into the ground as they carried on. 

Blades of grass tickled at his ankles, as Tommy started to regret his decision of leaving his shoes behind, but left the thought before it could grow. He didn’t regret his decision. Tubbo had left his pair behind back at the house, and by the time the duo had noticed they were already far too deep in the forest to come back, so Tommy elected for the genius idea to leave his own shoes behind a tree, making sure to slash at it with his sword and marking down on the bark so he won’t forget. 

And finally, they had arrived. Tommy had heard a faint noise of trickling water, like that of a small stream and had alerted Tubbo to its presence as they went to look for it under the assumption that they could take a break next to it. ‘Lo and behold, they had come across the very area they were looking for, a clearing, lush grass and rays of the afternoon sun gazing upon it, a stream of water running beside it. The two quickly got into their positions, stances ready and swords drawn, wooden as they were, and started their spar. 

Oak whacks against itself as two wooden swords slash and parry, as two children laughed and smiled, their arms filling with bruises from when the other’s sword had smacked against them, as two friends competed against each other, as two soldiers dodged and weaved and jumped around, as a dance of laughter and childlike wonder filled the breezing winds of the oak forest. And for a moment, things were normal again. For a moment, they were happy again. For a moment, they were just Tommy and Tubbo, no expectations on them, no burdens of wars they had to win, no blazing nations they had to worry about, they were just kids, just children. For a moment, they were just kids without the world around them to care about. 

_A shame that moments like these never last long._

Tommy jumped forward as he blocked a particularly strong slash from Tubbo, and-

_He was in ~~L'Manburg~~ Logsted, begging ~~Wilbur~~ Dream to not blow up his home, as he pleaded with desperation ~~his older brother~~ tyrant in front of him, as he pulled out his weapon and attacked and attacked and he fought and he can’t stop moving he can’t control himself why can’t he move why why why why why why why why whywhywhywhyhwhyhy- oh Prime it hurt fuck it hurt it hurt it hurt- _

“Tommy- _please-”_

Silence. The duel continued. 

“Tommy that’s- that’s enough- _stop-_ stop the duel- _Tommy-”_

Tommy blinked, and suddenly he wasn’t in Logstedshire anymore. Suddenly he wasn’t fighting Dream. Suddenly, he stood over a bruised and battered Tubbo, nose bloodied and arms filled with cuts and bruises, _as he held two wooden swords pressed against the boy’s neck, blood starting to spill._

For once, Tommy was relieved that he was utterly shit at crafting, since it was the only thing that had saved one of Tubbo’s lives from being taken away. He had made a little, very little, pretty tiny, not really noticeable error in crafting the two wooden swords. He had made them too blunt, they weren’t anywhere near sharp enough to even cut the bark of a tree. This little mistake had very narrowly saved his best friend’s life, and _had the swords been even a little sharper-_ Tommy stared at the small cuts on Tubbo’s neck. He didn’t dare continue the thought of the sharpness of the swords, so he tossed both weapons to the forest. 

As Tommy helped his best friend to his feet, the two awkwardly looked away, not wanting to talk about what had just happened. The silence continued, before Tubbo started to walk away, and for a moment Tommy had considered the thought of the boy finally realizing he was nothing but a piece of shit and had finally left him for good, but the ideas was tossed out of the window the moment the his best friend had returned with pieces of firewood and dropped them on the ground next to Tommy.

Rocks sparked against each other, and a camp fire was lit as the two boys sat across each other in silence, the night sky shining on them, the stars ever so slightly brighter than usual, contrasting the darkness of the void with splashes of bright light and heat, the constellations gazing upon them as the silence grew to deafening heights.

“So..do you want to talk about what happened?”

The silence was broken by a question that Tubbo had asked, as he finally met the eyes of the boy sitting in front of him and was met with eyes that had seen the worst the world had to offer and was asking for more, beckoning destiny, taunting fate to make his life even more difficult and miserable than it already had been. Suffice it to say, the look didn’t fit the normally bubbly and cheerfully annoying boy, it was downright jarring to see Tommy hold the same look that Wilbur held when they were in Tommy’s bunker.

“There was this asshole, back where I came from. Cheeky little shit, he did a lot of pranks and got a lot of people upset, everyone was annoyed at him.”

“Huh? That kinda sounds a bit like you, To-”

“The bitch pulled a lot of pranks on others, he stole shit, he bullied people, he was- well, he was a dick.”

“Really? I’m sure you weren’t _that_ bad, Tommy, but then aga-”

“Eventually, he went too far. He asked a hybrid, I think it was an enderghast, into helping him do a fucking prank, simply because the guy had memory problems. And of course, the asshole took advantage of it, he’d have infinite favors if he could always make the kid forget about him! Little asshole then decided to burn a house with the kid just because the owner pissed him off, son of a bitch.”

“Okay, so you _were_ that bad, but you changed, right?”

Tommy snorted, as the campfire crackled on in the background.

“Cheeky bastard got caught still. Got put in trial for everything he did, and when the hybrid was accused, the little bitch finally did something worthwhile in his life and decided to take all the blame for himself. You wanna know what happened after the trial, Tubbo?”

“..well, surely, surely you couldn’t have been like, executed, otherwise you’d be a lot different, so, did you apologize and everything turned out well?”

“He got exiled from his home. He got what he deserved. And you know what? _If only he shut his mouth, if only he did what he was told to do, if only he did nothing, if he just sat there and sit still, if only he wasn’t such a dumbass then maybe he’d still have had somewhere to come back to, maybe his life would have been a hell of a lot easier, maybe then he wouldn’t have been as messed up as he was, and maybe if he didn’t care about his stupid discs more and listened to his friends- maybe then he couldn’t have disappointed everyone he cared about.”_

The fire crackling in the background was all they heard in the background, as Tommy gasped for breath and as Tubbo rushed to his best friend and caught him in a hug. He ignored the drops of liquid that fell on his shoulder, ignored the way his friend muffled a sob, ignored the way his best friend shook in his arms as he rubbed the other blond’s back, ignoring the way Tommy hugged him tighter.

"I'm- I'm just a broken record, repeating the same things and whining the same complaints, I'm just a broken clock, I'm useless."

"Well, a broken clock _is_ right twice a day. And besides, man. I love you, you're my friend, discs or no discs."

The silence that had once engulfed their presence with a cold and tense misery had returned, this time in a different form, of warm hugs and gentle words, whispers of acknowledgment and hints of the warm sun shining its light upon them, for it was a reflection in itself. It was moonlight.

“Hey Tubbo?”

“Yeah, Tommy?”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll always be here to knock some sense into your stupid head, Toms. I’m your best friend.”

"Yeah, I guess you are, you clingy little shit-"

_"Hey-"_

The morning sun rose to await two boys, dried tear tracks faded on their cheeks and grins present on their faces as they made their way out of the forest, leaving behind ashes of burnt swords that signified a new beginning to their friendship. They would be fine, and if they weren’t? They would move hell and back for each other, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Thank you for being my friend, Tubbo.”

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, this took me. An entire day to write, which might sound pretentious and complaining since some people write this in like a week, but _still,_ I wrote this and then my internet cut out and Discord didn't save what I wrote and so I lost like, 7k characters of writing and I was pissed off, so I took a break and finished it in Google Docs and _my god i am never using discord to save my drafts again_
> 
> Anyway, enough about me, I hope you enjoyed! Make sure to subscribe to Technoblade if you like this. Very good life decision. 
> 
> Edit, 3 hours later: Lost 400 words and like 3 paragraphs due to a glitch, fixed now  
> 


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